Sheffield were only underdogs in the final because they were playing Wigan. They were no mugs. They'd been in the semi the previous year I think and that was when you had to play all rounds.

Of course it would be nice to win on the anniversary of that game but let's not kid ourselves. That team was a double championship winning team. We have a lot of potential in our team but we are not the 68 team.

Kick start means playing better......at the moment we need to improve to make sure of 8 whether you expect it or not.

THE only thing we have to play for now is stay in the top 8 when and if (if we play like we have been its going to be a big if) that is confirmed - season is over - we are going to have about 10 meaningless games to finish the season - we are so far away from being close to a top 6 side let alone at top 4 - we will be happy to finsh 8th and that for our club and budget is a good season.

we threw away a cup final shot why o why

Most teams in SL have as much chance of winning the CC as any other club. We've blown ours for another year.
We have arguably our best squad (we think anyway) in years and capable I think of a top 8 place AND winning the CC.
The best team in SL this season by a mile are Saints and we beat them. We played as we should have been all season.
Should have been in 2nd round of cup but we succumbed.
May scrape into top 8 but from what I've seen so far this season expect nothing beyond that!

That's a nice pep talk, if slightly patronising, but it's magical thinking, akin to the current admonition that if only Remoaners would back Britain, Brexit would be a success.

The 'belief' of fans will have absolutely no impact on what happens on the pitch; I prefer to base my beliefs on facts and evidence, and the facts and evidence tell me that we're capable of finishing just inside the top 8 - which is perfectly acceptable, given what we spend on our squad.

There is perhaps some truth in the theory that positivity will get more people through the gate - we had that in spades under Glover however, and it turns out that most of the 'new' people who came through the gate either weren't paying, or didn't exist.

Sorry can't agree there. We are a better side than Huddersfield and the reward would have been Catalans at home, another team we could/should have won. All of a sudden we are one game away from Wembley and a potential shot in the arm for the club of huge proportions. This squad has the ability to beat anyone on its day as the Saints game showed. It is a massive missed opportunity and for me Chester got his pre-match prep badly wrong.

Or right? For the 2nd year running. The club clearly has a different outlook to the fans but they are the ones who see the bigger picture.

It genuinely wasn’t intended to be patronising & certainly not like the pro-brexit analogy!
Perhaps Having wakey in-laws & reading this forum has skewed my perception of your fans, but it appears, to me at least, that too many are waiting for the team/club to fail, because it’s easy & that’s all they’ve known, rather than being brave enough to strive for better & put their head above the parapet in saying so. Vasty & I have commented on the difference between the two sets of fans (awaits the standard inbred, fingers & toe jibes) & whilst we can be accussed of having a bit of a small town mentality, we definitely believe we’re big enough to mix it with the bigger clubs & are generally as positive as we can be in backing & selling the club/brand to anyone who’ll listen (&those who won’t)!

I agree with what you are saying to a certain extent! Whether Bren thinks its patronizing or not, it`s a fact that Positivity breeds success - Obviously there has to be some realism in there and it`s not the be all and end all. We have the lowest budget in the league yes, but I actually don`t think that is reflected in our squad, MC and CC have done a great job and built a very competitive team on a smaller budget than the rest. Yes I get fans bringing the budget up when a moronic post comes up like this every so often, to remind us of the uphill battle Chester faces in some aspects but its all I ever hear from some our fans, even when we win i hear fans constantly talking about how we have the lowest budget in the league. A positive attitude from the top down can take you a lot of places that you would not get to with negative approach.

Unfortunately I suspect he'd knock on

Fordy wrote:
Not sure if I think the defence has got better but it is clear that the attack has suffered compared to last season. We look devoid of ideas in the opposition 20 and our last tackle options are shocking. How many grubbers have we seen this season? Not many! Other teams seem to use that to build pressure/force a GLDO, we seem to want to run the ball every time and invariably we end up dying with it and handing it over. A large percentage of the scores in games come from building the pressure until the opposition cracks. We're just not doing that often enough.
The other big thing for me is the amount of times we give the ball to a forward who is standing still, instead of on the burst. If Pauli Pauli took the ball while running at pace near the line would you expect him to be stopped????

I agree Fordy But as professionals they should know that or Chester should be training them that way but as we can see he's not. If the players are not taking on board what the coach is saying it's not Chester's fault but he's the coach he should be handling this. We as fans can see it

Last tackle plays and general kicks have been crap for years, not just this. There was a thread a while back which asked what would take us to the next step, better pivots was my answer and better pivots get you the better options on the last, intelligent kicks and creative play.

Agree, more so our long kicking game which I cant remember the last time we had a half with a decent long kicking game... Maybe Broughy? Miller, Wood and Finn do okay close to the line and we have scored some great tries from kicks but again this season that seems to have dwindled.

I have mentioned this before, in Johnstone and BJB we have two wingers that are exceptional in the air, why have we stopped kicking to them!!?

yes like we like were no mugs as well, sheffield had the right mind set to take on who ever came there way it was a fact the JK played each game to target where he could and proved he could do it, the 68 side should of had the double and you can't compare it to the modern game anyway, but we are so close to challenge any one this was an opportunity missed that could of got the fans wanting to get back to the terraces.
Steady has got it right about the mentality of our fans,
I'm sick of hearing the groans on the sidelines and they know nothing else, while we continue to be negative it will just turn newbies away.
one thing I do know it doesn't come from the top

we need to get this club noticed

the old saying a pint pot half full or half empty

LIKE I SAID LAST WEEK GET THE USELESS CHESTER OUT